


Pink Punk of Zeus

by ElfGrove



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 02:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14178243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElfGrove/pseuds/ElfGrove
Summary: Thank you silly typos for this pointless fluff AU. An Alternate timeline where Jason is a Greek son of Zeus when he meets Nico at Camp Half-Blood.





	Pink Punk of Zeus

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Jasico Old Farts Discord chat.

There was a new camper. There were multiple new campers. This was normal. It happened. It shouldn't require a meeting of all the head counselors.

Porca miseria! Even if it did require a meeting of the head counselors, he should be exempt. He was the only person in the Hades cabin. The other campers avoided him, Chiron and Dionysus avoided him. He rarely participated in anything. He was barely even **_AT_** camp. They only called on him if he was actively needed for some emergency. Whatever was going on almost certainly wouldn't affect him, and if it did, they could drag him into the mess at the last possible moment with the least possible interaction, like they always did.

He had only stayed connected to this camp because it was what Bianca wanted for him.

Percy had insisted he go though.

Nico trudged into meeting room in the main house, avoiding the temptation to literally drag his feet. The Stoll twins were exchanging spit balls with some demigod he didn't recognize but paused their mini battle long enough for him to pass through unmolested. It wasn’t a surprise he didn’t recognize some of the faces around the ping pong table. He didn't know many of the campers. No one wanted to know him, so he didn't waste the effort.

He slumped into a chair, pulling his aviator jacket tighter around himself as he shifted his Stygian Iron sword to hang off one side without needing to be disconnected from his chain belt. The faster he could get up and leave, the better.

Clarisse sat to one side of him, grunting a wordless greeting. He met her eyes briefly to nod back. they weren't friends, but there was a sort of respect since they'd started sparring together a year or so back, and she was probably the closest thing he had to a friend here.

On the other side? More unfamiliar demigods.

He ignored them.

Until he felt the stare. He flicked his eyes up to find a boy peering over the head of a girl with choppy hair. He looked, curious, and oddly, not judgmental. That would pass. Maybe these were the newcomers.

Wide electric blue eyes took him in as Nico felt a frown tugging at the edge of his own lips. Lightly tanned skin, broad shoulders in a leather motorcycle jacket decorated with colorful patches, square jaw, buzzed blonde hair... until you got halfway up to long locks that swept over his forehead, dyed an eye-searing bright pink. Silver and gold glinted in multiple spots along his ears and at the arch of one eyebrow. The boy's lips pursed together as he looked down at Nico, too blue eyes bright and friendly, like a puppy.

Nico's stomach plummeted uneasily, and his frown turned into a full scowl. 

_What. In. Tartarus._

He shifted in his seat so the only people he had to look at were Clarisse and the Stolls. He didn't know what was going on there, but he wanted no part of it.

* * *

 

The meeting ended, and Nico was getting away from the cluster of excited demigods as quickly as he could. One of the new campers was a child of Zeus. Thalia's brother. Nico liked Thalia well enough, but he could do without more entanglements with other children of the Big Three. Thalia had rejected Zeus by joining the Huntresses. She fought side-by-side with Bianca. She was okay. Percy was... Percy got on his very last nerve.

He wanted to get out of here before someone proposed the non-busy Hades counselor give the guy the grand tour or got the bright idea that he and Percy and the new guy should spar or hang out together or anything else like that. 

Besides? A son of Zeus and a son of Hades? You couldn't get more antagonistic a set up if you tried. No thank you. 

And the pink hair?

He could already feel his muscles tense just looking at the other boy.

Percy was quite enough already.

"Nico!" He heard Chiron's voice just as he reached the edge of the crowd, "Could you--?"

He kept walking, "No." 

* * *

 He saw Jason Grace around camp. From a distance. Always from a distance. Always at the center of a knot of people.

Jason Grace was popular, which you'd expect from a son of Zeus. He had a penchant for stylishly ripped black jeans with pastel color shirts, that ever-present leather motorcycle jacket and combat boots, which had been unexpected. The brief confusion **_THAT_** had created had resulted in campers trying to befriend Nico too. Which might have been nice, if that interest had lasted beyond them glimpsing the inside of the Hades cabin or the brief time between introducing themselves and learning that he wasn't as personable as Jason was.

Sometime after joining camp, Jason had started shaving a lightning bolt into the blonde fuzz of his still very pink undercut. The pink varied from the bright fuchsia he'd arrived with to a pale carnation shade that matched some of the makeup cases the Aphrodite girls favored.

Not that he paid attention. Jason was just hard **_not_** to notice.

He caught Jason looking at him occasionally. Bright blue eyes still wide and lips almost always pursed as if he was trying to come to a conclusion about Nico but lacked information.

Sometimes Jason smiled, as if they shared something.

Nico would scowl and look away when Jason smiled.

It made him uneasy.

* * *

 

He was sparring with Clarisse in the arena one afternoon when Percy and Jason came sauntering in. He missed a step when the two took up a spot in the shade, watching them instead of going about their own business.

He still managed to win, if just barely. Clarisse was no slouch, that’s why he sparred with her in the first place. However, he refused to lose face in front of either of those boys. Still, Clarisse had gotten more shots in than he liked to think about. She offered him a towel and asked if she should pick up salve for him from the infirmary as they retrieved water bottles from the bench.

Nico's eye flicked to the boys standing mere feet away, noting Jason's hair was a soft pastel pink today, before he grimaced and shook his head.

"I'm fine."

"Suit yerself, Short Stuff." She ruffled his hair fondly before heading out of the arena, nodding to the others as she left, "Percy. Jason."

Nico felt his scowl get more pronounced. He knew she had a class scheduled to teach the Ares campers, but he wished she hadn't just left him here with them and used equipment to clean up.

Percy practically bounced in place, "Hey Nico!"

Nico raised an eyebrow; he was up to something, "Percy."

"Have you met Jason?"

"We all met Jason," Nico turned away from them, starting to organize the discarded sparring pads. "There was a head counselors meeting,"

"Great!" Percy was far too cheerful, "So we were wondering if you--"

"That hardly seems to count," Jason was suddenly in front of him, stacking sweaty equipment pads he had no responsibility for. "I mean, I've tried to talk to you since then, but it seems like you're always busy, or off on a quest somewhere."

"Nico doesn't do quests." Percy interjected, "He runs errands for Hades."

Nico scowled and looked down. He didn't need a reminder what Percy thought of him. A useless child running petty errands for his father.

"What else are quests though?" Jason sounded exasperated, "Really, Percy."

"Nico does those errands alone," Percy gestured for Nico to back him up. "So it's not the same, right?"

Nico shrugged.

"Just sounds more impressive to me," Nico's eyes jerked up to meet Grace's, more out of surprise than anything else. The guy was practically beaming at him, white teeth bared in a grin.

His response was halting, voice uncertain, "Thanks."

"Anytime." Jason dropped what he was doing and offered Nico his hand, "Jason Grace, son of Zeus."

Nico looked uncertainly between his hand and face several times before he took it, exchanging a brief handshake, "Nico di Angelo."

Jason looked as if he'd just been given a gift instead of a simple handshake, "It's nice to finally meet you, Nico."

Nico shrugged, eyes shifting away from that too bright face. He didn't know what the guy was so happy about, and he didn't like how it made his stomach twist. They were probably ramping up a prank.

"Anyways," Percy drawled. "Jason and I were wondering if you'd be up for a little sparring. Y’know, friendly competition between the sons of the big three and all."

"No." Nico gathered up the stacked equipment, ready to take it to the storage building.

Jason beat him to a pile, "Let me help you."

Nico gave the guy another uneasy look. He couldn't trust this. "You don't have to."

"I want to," Jason replied brightly.

Percy trailed after them as they walked in silence, Jason all smiles, Nico a walking bundle of suspicion.

Percy managed to make a long string of arguments about why and how Nico should take up regular sparring with the two of them, garnering occasional encouraging nods and noises from Jason.

Once the equipment was stored, Jason was the one to turn to him, pink hair damp with sweat from the heat, “So what do you think? Interested?”

Nico bit back a reflexive rude retort, “I’ll think about it.”

“Oh, come on, Nico,” Percy complained. “Why not?”

Nico turned away, stepping into the cool shadows and escaping to his cabin.

* * *

He wasn’t expecting anyone to bother him today.

It was dreadfully hot out, and the campers were either holed up in cabins with working AC or swimming at the lake or beach side. His own cabin had gotten too warm for comfort, so he’d sought refuge in the shade trees of the forest.

He’d even managed to fall asleep.

He woke up to someone sitting down on the ground next to him, under an old tulip tree.

He started, sitting up halfway and sword already in hand when he recognized the pink hair. No motorcycle jacket today, but he seemed to have donned a variety of bracelets to make up for the uncovered arms revealed by a black tank top advertising some band. His arms were well muscled but lithe. Athletic instead of weight lifting muscle. Nico was suddenly reminded of the sparring question he’d never really answered.

“Hey there,” Jason smiled easily. “Didn’t know you were back at camp.”

“Got back last night,” Nico lowered himself back to the ground with a grunt, not willing to try to find another cool spot in this heat. “I’ll be gone again soon.”

“Oh.”

Nico cracked an eye open at the disappointed noise, Jason was looking away, frowning for the first time that Nico could remember seeing, “What?”

“Ah, I,” Jason’s hand was clasped at the back of his neck, fingers rubbing over buzzed blonde hair as if it was a nervous habit. “I guess I was hoping we could hang out some when you got back.”

Nico felt his eyebrows knit, “Why?”

Jason looked back at him then, and if he hadn’t been sure it was a trick of the leaf-dappled sunlight and reflections off pink hair, he might have thought the guy was blushing. Popular sons of Zeus didn’t get embarrassed. Apparently, they did direct lopsided smiles at sons of Hades though, “I want to get to know you.”

He searched Jason’s face. He couldn’t figure out where the prank was here. What he wanted. If he needed something, why didn’t he just come out and say it? Surely Percy and Annabeth had told him to just ask for favors instead of bothering with trying to butter him up?

“I don’t understand you.”

Jason laughed at that, his smile returning, warm and bright, “What’s there to understand?”

Nico groaned and turned on his side, facing away from Jason. He didn’t like the way his cheeks had warmed up to see that smile reappear. The heat was really getting to him.

“There’s a campfire tonight after dinner. Roasting marshmallows and a sing along.”

Nico didn’t see how this was relevant to him, “Okay?”

“Would you sit with me?”

Nico was silent for a long time, trying to dissect Jason’s motive.

“If you don’t want to be around a lot of people, we can do something else.”

“You’re stubborn,” Nico muttered.

“So I’ve been told,” Nico could hear the smile growing wider in Jason’s voice.

“I still don’t understand you.”

“Is that a yes?”

* * *

He ended up going to the campfire, eating smores next to a pink haired son of Zeus who sang and smiled obliviously at him while other campers tried to dance a line between socializing with Jason and avoiding him like the plague.

Jason seemed oblivious at least.

Campers surreptitiously tried to get him away from Nico on multiple occasions. Gentle invites to sit with other groups, to meet someone new, to give his input on some plan in the works, each politely declined.

Eventually, someone felt the need to be blunt.

Nico had looked away, pointedly not embarrassed or angry. He knew what the other campers thought of him. He’d known for a long time. It didn’t hurt anymore.

“Jason, come sit with us. You don’t have to hang out with him like he’s some charity case. He’s dangerous, and he hates people anyways. No reason to risk catching death from the creeper.”

He didn’t think Jason had it in him to get angry like that, but venom dripped from his voice even as he kept it soft and even, “I asked Nico to hang out. If anyone is the charity case here, it’s me. And if you have a problem with who I want to be friends with, you can step off, or you’re going to have a problem with me, got it?”

The guy had practically fallen over himself trying to get away, and Nico had been staring at Jason in wide-eyed shock when he turned back to him.

Jason’s face had gone through several expressions before landing on sheepish embarrassment, a hand at the back of his neck and fingers fidgeting in the blonde buzzcut while he didn’t meet Nico’s eyes, “Sorry. I shouldn’t have—If you don’t want to be around me, I—"

Nico blinked slowly, realizing Jason thought he might be angry at him for the outburst. The truth was, he couldn’t recall the last time someone had stood up for him in public. It… was nice.

“No, I um,” His fingers brushed lightly over the back of Jason’s hand as he tried to figure out how to reassure him before pulling his hand back, twisting his face away, not sure what his own face must look like just now, “Thank you, Jason.”

Jason’s hand landed on top of his, squeezing briefly before leaving him untouched again, “For you, anytime.”

* * *

Nico didn’t know what to do with Jason’s friendship. It was new. It made him uncomfortable. It made him happy.

He’d be alone at camp, going about his business, only for Jason to come bounding up in a way not entirely unlike Cerberus greeting him when he returned to the underworld. Except Jason didn’t want him to throw a ball or play. Jason just wanted to find out how he was doing. To be nearby.

Jason, who could be with anyone at camp, searched him out.

He glanced at it for what must be the thousandth time. Scars were not uncommon in their circles, but facial scars were. If you got close enough to something to get a cut on your face deep enough to scar, generally you didn’t survive the ordeal. Jason had. The pale line that crossed through his lips was testament to that.

He wondered what a scar across the tissue of lips felt like. Was it a different texture from the scars on his hands and arms?

He wasn’t sure if it was okay to ask.

“So,” Nico started slowly, toe of his shoe tracing patterns in the dirt beneath autumn colored leaves. “Why do you… I mean…” He gestured helplessly, knowing he had veered straight into rudeness. “Why this?”

Jason sat up to look at him directly, they’d been lounging side by side beneath some trees in view of Thalia’s pine. Nico felt his cheeks heat up with humiliation. Whatever Jason saw, he seemed to decide that Nico hadn’t meant to be uncouth, “The punk look, or the pink hair?”

“Both.”

“Did you ever ask Thalia about her look?”

Nico bit his bottom lip, “No.”

“Okay,” Jason breathed out slowly. “You know Thalia’s my sister, right? Not just from Zeus, same Mom too.”

Nico nodded slowly.

“We were separated for a long time. I was too young to go with her when she ran away, but she tried. Child services got me. I bounced around the system, and the only loving family I remembered was her, so that was what I associated with folk that cared about you. How she looked. She got out of the tree, joined the Huntresses, found me again. She taught me how to fight. Thalia and Bianca both did. I found out about Zeus and all of this then.”

“Oh.”

“I heard a little bit about you too.” It seemed it was Jason’s turn to be embarrassed. “Not much, but every now and then, Bianca would let something slip. Two demigod kids by the same parent is rare, so I was curious about you, of course. But… That’s not what you asked.”

Nico remained silent, waiting while Jason’s face got redder.

“Anyways, Thalia’s the only family that’s really ever cared about me, so taking after her fashion wise just kind of came naturally.”

“And the pink hair?”

“Kind of a nose tweak to the old man. He wants some ideal super masculine son, but he never cared about me outside what I could provide to his gain. That’s not me. Not who I am, so,” Jason shot him that lopsided smile that was becoming so familiar and shrugged. “So I claim my heritage, lightning bolt and all, but I make it my own. I make it me, about what I value. That’s this.”

Nico chuckled, “You’re kind of amazing.”

“Oh yeah?” Jason leaned in, blue eyes sparkling. “I worried maybe I was a bit much.”

Nico shook his head, smiling sardonically and gesturing to his all black ensemble, “You’ve seen me, right?”

“Definitely,” There was something in Jason’s tone that made him look up.

Blue eyes bored into his, and he had trouble thinking about anything else but those eyes. About Jason, who had spent all this time, carefully forging a friendship, defending him when he had no reason to. Jason who sought him out, who happily spent hours just spending time together, often in silence. Jason who never asked him for favors as a demigod, had so pointedly not done it, he’d stopped waiting for the other shoe to drop the way he did any time Percy approached him.

He somehow hadn’t noticed Jason closing the distance until his lips were on his, warm and as gentle as the boy himself. It ended before he could pull himself together to react, and Jason was looking at him uncertainly, lower lip pulled between his teeth, already regretting it. Nico swallowed hard, just staring back. Pink hair. Piercings. Right. He’d been told. He knew what people said about that. He’d avoided colors. He didn’t need extra reasons to be despised and outcast. He didn’t tell anyone, and they despised him anyways. Maybe they all already knew. Maybe that was why he was hated. Maybe that was why they’d tried to save Jason from getting close to him. Like poison.

“Nico?” Jason’s face crumpled, “I—”

He was poison.

He jumped to his feet and ran.

Hades sent a message even before dinner time at the pavilion. He was needed. It was urgent. He should talk to Jason. He knew he should. But this was urgent. He’d have to say something when he came back.

* * *

 

Of course, when he returned Jason was away on a quest.

Just his luck.

He’d panicked, and now Jason, his only real friend at Camp Half-Blood, was never going to speak to him again.

He sat on the steps of the Hades cabin, not really seeing anything, wallowing in self-recrimination.

“Fratellino.”

Nico looked up to see Bianca standing there, in her Huntress silvers, bow slung over one shoulder, a smile on her lips, sunlight dancing over freckled cheeks.

He practically launched himself into her arms, “Sorella!”

She laughed, spinning around with him before putting him back on his feet, “It’s good to see you.”

“You too,” He smiled. “I didn’t know you were coming to camp!”

“We weren’t planning to, but we ended up making a small detour to deliver someone.”

Nico couldn’t hide his exhaustion at the idea, “A new camper?”

“Not quite,” There was something mischievous in the corner of her eyes.

“Heard you lost this,” Nico looked past Bianca to find Thalia with a bedraggled looking Jason in tow. “I thought you’d look after my baby brother for me, Di Angelo.”

They came close before Jason finally looked at him, flicking a long strand of hot pink hair away from his eyes, and an awkward but genuine smile met Nico's dumbstruck expression.

"...Hey."

"Uh," He took a step back, glancing uneasily to Bianca before answering. "Hey."

He saw it when Jason deflated at his reaction, “I’m glad you came back. I, uh— I’m sorry about before.”

“Jason…”

“I won’t do anything like that again, just,” Their sisters exchanged a look. “Please don’t leave again. You don’t have to leave. Not because of me.”

“Hades called me for a mission.” Nico took a step closer, “I was coming back.”

“Oh,” The relief in that single syllable was palpable, and Nico found himself looking up at messy hot pink hair, dirty leather jacket, jeans ripped beyond fashionable, and behind it all, electric blue eyes that looked like they’d just been told they’d escaped an execution verdict.

“Something we should know,” Thalia’s voice was teasing. “Nico?”

Nico ignored her, stepping past Bianca to grab one of Jason’s hand in his, “You’re a mess, Jason.”

“Yeah,” He chuckled, eyes searching Nico’s, fingers squeezing back cautiously.

“I’m glad you’re back.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t be stupid.” Foot in mouth. Again. Don’t look at Bianca. Don’t look at Thalia. He looked at Jason, who looked for all the world like he really couldn’t believe Nico was happy he was back and safe. Idiot. Who else would he care about in this gods-forsaken camp?

“Okay,” Jason slumped a little, not moving closer or farther away, hand still entwined tentatively with Nico’s.

Nico pulled, making the taller demigod stumble a little, catching one shoulder before he truly lost his balance. He used that to steady Jason, lifting himself upon tiptoes to leave a brief kiss on Jason’s cheek.

Jason turned bright pink all over, blue eyes wide, fingers tightening almost painfully in Nico’s. It was kind of cute.

“I’m not fast at this kind of thing.”

Jason’s response was barely above a whisper, “Okay.”

“I’m not good at it.”

“Ok.”

“But, I want to try.”

“Me too.”


End file.
